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About

I am a researcher and writer with a focus on emergent technology and communication. My work examines how automated online tools including bots and algorithms are used to enable both democracy and control. I study how computational propaganda–-the manipulation of public opinion using social media–is used in attempts to affect the flow of information during major political events.

I am currently co-editing, with Dr. Philip N. Howard, a book of case studies entitled Computational Propaganda. This text will be published with the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics series at Oxford University Press in the Fall of 2018. I am also working on a manuscript exploring the future of online propaganda, tentatively titled DigiProp, for PublicAffairs.

I am the Director of the Digital Intelligence Lab at the Institute for the Future (IFTF)–a 50-year-old think tank located in Palo Alto, California. The DigIntel Lab does publicly accessible research at the intersection of the social and computer sciences. Our most recent report, on a new form of human rights abuse called State Sponsored Trolling, was released in conjunction with a globally-focused piece from Bloomberg. The DigIntel Lab and its projects are supported by the Hewlett Foundation, the New Venture Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and others.